Freezing
by Foxyperv
Summary: It was following him.  He had hear it creeping, he had feel it move…but not anymore.


**Alphabetic meme**

**F - Freezing, one-sided Batman AU, ?xSentinelFreeze, horror**

_**It**_ was here again.

He abruptly turned: nothing. As always.

He scanned the dark alley, looking for something, _anything_, that would prove himself he was not just imagining things. Again, nothing.

Well as close as the streets of Gotham came to nothing at least. For a newcomer, the very thought of such a city would spook them out: shadows everywhere, even in the sunniest of days; an eerie silence for such a big city, only broken by the whispers of its inhabitants, the occasional gunshot and the constant creeping by man or beast -not that there is much a difference-. Yes, for a bot from out of town every shadows would become a potential enemy, every noise would send their spark racing against their chestplates. Their demise would be close as the smell of fear -smell that the bots of Gotham almost **fed** off- will impregnate their very core, making them defenseless.

Freeze was not one of them. As a native, he knew which shadows were suspicious in the sea of darkness that engulfed the city, he heard every disturbance in the constant not-so-silent sound of the streets, he felt the real threat in the swarm of enemies that was the population…and here, he _knew_ something was amiss.

_**It**_ was following him.

He had hear _**it**_ creeping, he had feel _**it**_ move…but not anymore. The alley was void of presence.

After much hesitation, still checking one last time, he turned back, that feeling that someone -some_**thing**_- was behind him still unshaken.

Choosing to ignore it, he resumed his path down the alley, his heavy steps echoing against the monstrously tall building walls…only to stop dead in his track as a chill ran down his spine.

Quite a surprise given who he was…yet…the weight of eyes staring straight at him, not burning a hole, no, but, most definitely, _chilling_ their way down his back by the intensity of _**it's**_ gaze…couldn't have received a different reaction from him.

Standing very still, not wanting to make _**what**_ever was following him get a hint, he quickly glanced back at a puddle on his right side, effectively seeing behind him as the reflection showed him…an empty alley…

The weight of the gaze was also gone, but that did little to reassure him: _**it**_ was not simply following him, _**it**_ was watching him, quite closely at that, and in a way he could not return the favor…

The pattern had been broken.

All of the sudden, Freeze forgot who he was today to remember who he had been as a cold dreaded feeling seeped through his fuel lines, effectively freezing him stock still.

It had been a while since he had last known fear…ever since…

_That night…the pattern had been broken…no longer an impression but a presence…_

_His ragged intakes as he pressed to the wall…the approaching footsteps as he tried to hide in a dark corner…the featureless figure looming above him, intakes husky…and the hands…the hands getting closer to_-

''NO!'', he snapped himself out of it, unnecessarily turning back again to see, to make **sure**, nobody was there…and indeed nobody was.

Still shaken by his reminiscence, Freeze tried to cool himself down, literally. Satisfaction appeared on his face as the puddle of water on his side froze: he still had it. He wasn't so defenseless anymore.

He thought he heard _**It**_ moving, making his breath hitch slightly.

No matter his powers, it wouldn't do any good against an invisible threat. And _**It**_ knew it, relished in it even, if what Freeze heard was really a chuckle: _**Its **_little prey had the possibility to fight back, yet he couldn't.

Irony is a bitch.

A flicker in the corner of his optic and his spark skipped a beat. _**It**_ was closing in. Apparently, his amusement wasn't enough to make him patient. _**It**_ wanted _**Its**_ prize. _Now_.

Looking around frantically, Freeze tried to pinpoint _**Its**_ location. To no avail.

Another flicker, closer this time. His frame started shaking again.

_**It**_ crept just past him.

His processor failed, and he did the same exact mistake as the first time: he tried to hide.

Pressing himself in a dark corner, he heard the footsteps again. Squeezing his optics shut, he felt the figure again, its intakes husky as ever. Whimpering, he imagined the hands, the hands that were approaching, the hand that were _after him_. Shedding a single tear, he awaited for the inevitable…

Nothing.

Not even a sound.

Propping an optic open, a look of disbelief painted itself on his face:

Less than an inch away, was a hand. A frozen hand. But what had really got him gawking wasn't the hand in itself, but whom it belonged to.

Memories from his time at the academy, from his time as a _normal_ bot, flooded from his processor as his optics met that familiar face, twisted in an ugly leer, and he gasped:

''Starscream?''

**Sorry for the delay, dear. I've been pestered so much by RL that it rendered me brain-dead for a while, hope this comes to your expectations ^^**


End file.
